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Aug 28, 2012

Zero cost composting in your balcony from Kitchen waste

courtesy-http://www.solihull.gov.uk

The latest name hubby has discovered to tease me is "Malan"
(मालन ) as I am becoming impossible to
him with my increasing interest in container gardening in my balcony. Anyways
who cares... and he also knows no one can stop my adventures till I myself
don't give up which I don't see happening near future. ;)

This post is based on my experience of setting up a smell
free compost bin in one corner of my balcony with successfully converting my
kitchen waste into compost and using it for my plant's nutritional
requirements. And it's all organic..

The ides of publishing this post is to
explain how to build a compost bin in your balcony with the
help of a container which generally goes in scrap. You can easily have this
setup in any corner of the balcony of your apartment or even in the patio, deck,
terrace or porch and it doesn't require a single penny to start and maintain. It’s
a "Zero Cost Composting setup" . This has been conceptualized for
people who are staying in apartments and have limited space but one can always
have this outdoor also. This does not require any worms for composting and very
easy to handle.

I have seen people asking over the
net if they can use a box or a bottle for composting and have seen people
dumping the waste directly into gardening pots but based on my experience I
would suggest using a relatively big storage space for composting. A
bucket or drum is a cost and as an alternate of it I go for a5 Lt. floor
cleaner bottle. I clean it thoroughly after consuming the floor cleaner and make
sure the chemicals are washed off. Then I expose it to direct sunlight
for two days to ensure it is ready for converting into a compost bin. Composting
in balcony can be done with variety of waste ranging from Kitchen waste such as
vegetable peels, egg shells, used tea bags etc along with the dried leafs or
flowers of other plants or cow dung also. I would not suggest using nonveg
leftovers, litter of your pets / animals or any dairy products as this will
give it a very foul smell and dairy products most of the time deteriorate the
compost.

How to create the bin from 5 Lt.
floor cleaner bottle:

Take
a 5 Lt. round or square empty bottle of floor cleaner.

Cut
1 inch below the lid and remove the top.

Wash
thoroughly for at least 3-4 times to wash off the chemicals completely.

Sun
dry for two days in direct sunlight.

Now
punch the bottom of the bin with a scissor / screwdriver to have 4-5 small
holes.

Punch
again on four sides of the wall at a gap of 1.5 inch. 4 rows, having 4
holes on all 4 sides of the bin.

Voila
!! your bin is ready.

How to start composting:

Add
a layer of soil (any ordinary soil) to create a base.

Now
you can start adding the waste as and when you get from your kitchen. add
one layer after another.

After
3 to 4 layers of waste you have to add a thin layer of soil. just to cover
it and give it a good texture.

You
are not required to add water periodically, but if you find the bin is dry
or the waste which you have added is becoming dry due to weather
conditions you can sprinkle some water to keep it moist.

Don't
add much water as this will create a soggy mixture wherein we have to make
sure that it should not contain too much of water. Also please avoid the
rain showers entering in to the bin during monsoon.

You
have to cover the bin with a lid or a piece of plywood as to convert the
waste into compost you need adequate heat which results in required fumes
and gases and convert it into compost.

Keep
on stirring the dumped mixture periodically. I do it once in 15 days but
you can do it more often. It improvises the airing process and expedites
the composting process.

What to add and what not to the
compost:

You can add whatever you want as I have mentioned
above. Right form kitchen waste to green dried leafs, egg shells, tea bags
etc.

You
should also avoid using the waste which has too much of watery content such
as cucumber or with too much of starch such as whole potato etc. Though
you can use the peels of any vegetable.

A
strict no no to the nonveg waste or pet litter and any kind of dairy
products. I had a very very bad experience with dairy products. and since
you have to accommodate the bin in your home or apartment it has to be a
setup which is free from foul smell or flies. all restricted items can
result in both.

How to handle foul smell:

One
most common reason of foul smell is the excess of green or watery content
in the bin mixture. If you think the bin is creating a foul smell don't
throw it away. just add some brown (carbon) content to it which could be hey, dried
grass etc. The simplest is adding shredded newspapers or newspaper pieces
to it. This brown content will balance the excess green content and
soon the foul smell will go off.

How to know the compost is ready:

These
bins are transparent and you can easily see once the color of the mixture
becomes black and start giving the usual smell of matured compost or cow
dung manure. This smell is not at all foul and the texture of the compost
would be semi dried. You can empty the bin and spread the compost on a
plastic sheet and expose it to direct sunlight. It would be completely
dried in a day or two and can be stored in a poly bag for future use. The
empty bin can further be used for a fresh cycle of composting. You can
directly add the mature compost to your plants / containers / pots also.

How to use the compost:

Dig
some soil around the stem of the plant and add compost in to the spaced
area. cover it back with the soil and keep watering normally. You will see
the magical effects of the compost soon in your plants. A blast of
organic fruits and flowers

Note:Compost
is used to give adequate nutrition to the plant which is required for their
growth however the growth of the plant may depend on many other factors such as
mulching, pruning, removing the suckers, adding other nutrients such as
potassium, calcium etc as per individual plant needs.

Soon will be arriving my video
tutorial on "Zero cost composting set up".

Contents of this blog /
published on any of it’s pages is copyrighted and the sole property of
the author of this blog and copying, disclosure, modification,
distribution and / or publication of the content published on this blog
without the prior written consent of the author is strictly prohibited

8 comments:

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About Me

I am a simple person doing good in life. Born and brought up in the lap of the holy Himalayas and lived very close to nature till I moved to Delhi. I had a fantastic childhood knitted around the nature and this still makes me find my ways to be close to the nature as much as possible. The fast paced life of a metro has ofcourse its impacts on me however I am delighted to say that I have been successful in preserving my true self to a large extent. I am a trained vocalist though not much in to singing nowadays but dream to re explore it in a meaningful direction some time later in my life. I am a creative soul and tend to do things differently in all aspects of my life. I have a flair for writing and play with my pen pretty often. Baking is another hobby for weekends. Gardening is something which I was always interested in but started exploring recently as here in Delhi plants are among those things which help me stick with my roots somewhere there in the Hills. At the end I am an excellent observer which makes my life fun and I love animals like anything..

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Contents of this blog / published on any of it’s pages is copyrighted and the sole property of the author of this blog and copying, disclosure, modification, distribution and / or publication of the content published on this blog without the prior written consent of the author is strictly prohibited.